An adventure-seeking feminist academic blogging about travel, education, personal growth, and the need for societal change!

#shutdownthefuckbarrel

If you have not been watching Last Week Tonight, you are making a mistake. On this past show, John Oliver tackled the issue of imprisoning people for not paying their parking/speeding tickets. If my post on the privatization of American prisons had you intrigued and/or furious, you should definitely check out this clip.

Basically, the gist is that many states have been piling up the fees on citations in order to not raise taxes (gotta love those talking points). This leads to tickets that add up to $250+ which understandably sometimes people, especially people in poverty, cannot afford to pay. Even a $41 ticket can be incredibly burdensome as Oliver points out. So what happens if you can’t afford to pay? Well, you might have to set up a payment plan (which costs more money), get put on probation (at a monthly fee), lose your license (so you can’t go to work to make money to pay your ticket), or even go to jail (at which point the cost is transferred to all tax payers to pay for the prison)!

It’s crazy. Watch it. And then share it to help #shutdownthefuckbarrel